


Waves

by RadioZap777



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: A bunch of background characters - Freeform, Again, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Beaches, Funny background event, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, She/Her Pronouns for Fujisaki Chihiro, Ultimate Talent Development Plan (Dangan Ronpa), backstory headcanon, crabs, i wouldn't call this angst but it's not entirely happy either, only two characters have dialogue in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:07:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29530317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadioZap777/pseuds/RadioZap777
Summary: Everyone else is enjoying the school field trip to the beach except Himiko. She doesn't like the ocean, but it isn't because her inability to swim makes her fear drowning.In fact, it has nothing to do with the water.
Relationships: Tojo Kirumi & Yumeno Himiko
Kudos: 6





	Waves

**Author's Note:**

> as far as i know there's no canon explanation for why himiko dislikes the ocean but thats so SPECIFIC i just snatched it and ran
> 
> also my knowledge of canon is a bit limited, and i wasn't very confident in writing kirumi (fun fact: almost everyone who appears in this fic except himiko was randomly selected, including kirumi!) but i hope this fic does justice! <3

It’d be wrong to say beach trips had been ruined for Himiko. In truth, she never liked them in the first place.

Sure, she understood the appeal. It was a cliche experience, building sand castles and enjoying the waves of the ocean, and she knew why many would seek it. Part of her even envied the other Ultimates’ ability to partake freely in the trip.

But, for as long as Himiko remembered, she always thought the cons outweighed the pros. The sand would burn your feet in the daytime, so your only options were to dash to the water, avoid the sand altogether, or slip on a pair of sandals, but she never liked the feeling of the rubber leaving blisters after wearing them for too long. The sun - the stupid culprit guilty of cooking the sand - burned in the sky all day long, always getting in her eyes even when she tried wearing a hat to block it. And who knew what kind of creatures were waiting just beneath the surface of either the sand or the water? One wrong step, and you’re liable to lose your toes to a crab or something.

_ Perhaps it’s too late for some, _ Himiko mused as she heard Chihiro yelp in pain over, predictably, a crab pinching her foot.

But it would also be a lie to say Himiko’s opinion of the ocean hadn’t worsened. She disregarded the clamor of the other Ultimates as she pondered this to herself, hardly even noticing the anxious Mikan rushing past her to make sure the programmer hadn’t been pinched too hard by the crustacean. She knew it was the job of a nurse to worry and all, but the lengths the Ultimate Nurse went for everyone… It sounded like a pain. So, she didn’t bother.

What kept bothering her… It was, in part, the suffocating smell of salty water. Every beach was different, but at the same time, the obnoxiously familiar scent was the same.

It was an unpleasant reminder. A reminder of her failures, stinging her as if the salt in the air had been rubbed in her metaphorical wounds.

Himiko knew- No, she  _ swore _ that it had been the fault of the anti-mage. She remembered it clearer than anything, as if it’d happened yesterday. That man sneering in the audience, who barked into laughter when she said what had happened to her master’s performance. Nobody would back her up, of course. The anti-mage’s spell had fueled the common spectator’s disbelief in magic. Like many of her peers, they, too, laughed off her insistence of the truth behind her magic.

One thing everyone knew for certain was that her master had never been seen again. She had searched for him everywhere, even confronted several anti-mages who may have been affiliated with the foul one in the audience, but kept turning up blanks.

It had all happened at the beach. The foam of the waves washed everything precious out to sea, like it was taunting her. Himiko hated the theft of the ocean.

“Himiko?”

The voice pulled the small mage from her thoughts, and her eyes darted up to meet the person who addressed her. It was one of her classmates, Kirumi.

“Nyeh?” Himiko mumbled, looking back towards the shoreline, where she must have been staring whilst lost in her thoughts. Chihiro and Mikan had both gone their own ways. Himiko almost surveyed the rest of the sand for them, but decided it’d take too long. “Is something wrong, Kirumi?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” the maid insisted. “I was wondering what was bothering you. Whether they’re playing or relaxing, everyone’s been doing something except for you.”

“You haven’t done much of either too, y’know,” Himiko grumbled dismissively.

“Well, it is still my duty to take care of everyone, is it not?” Kirumi reasoned. “I’m still in my maid dress, after all. You’re in your swimsuit, so clearly you intended to do something while we’re all here, right, Himiko?”

“...Nyehhh…” Himiko looked back towards the shoreline, surveying the other Ultimates and whatever shenanigans they were up to. Angie was trying to convince Chiaki to throw a handful of sand like a snowball at Hajime, Miu was showing off her “bikini-perfect beach body,” and Hina was presumably lost to sea…

“Himiko?”

The mage looked down at her swimsuit, red and frilly, then back at Kirumi. “I guess you’re right, yeah. I  _ did _ want to have fun or relax here, but it just sounds like a pain now…”

“A ‘pain?’” Kirumi inquired.

Himiko was starting to get tired of the conversation. She tugged on her sunhat, sorely wishing it had been her trademark mage hat instead. “You wouldn’t get it,” she grumbled. “Shouldn’t you go check on someone else?”

Although Himiko’s somewhat hostile tone did, in all honesty, irk Kirumi a little bit, she knew she didn’t mean it. As a maid, Kirumi was very well suited for several jobs, but assisting someone like Himiko with something like controlling tone wasn’t quite one of them.

“Very well then,” she responded. “If you need anything, let me know, okay?”

“Sure,” Himiko mumbled, and watched the maid head towards the rest of the crowd. As Himiko watched her leave, a couple of her classmates caught her eye.

Tenko and Kaede were passing a beach ball back and forth (Tenko with her characteristic…  _ excitement _ ), and when they noticed her, too, they both waved. Kaede with one arm, and Tenko enthusiastically waving both arms in a giant arc through the air. Himiko held back a soft laugh, knowing both were welcoming her over, and returned a lazy wave in their direction.

Nobody knew she was suffocating under the scent of the salt in the air, but maybe she could breathe a bit easier with her friends nearby.

And yet, ironically, once she took one step forward, she was swiftly reminded of one of her first roadblocks: the burning sand underfoot.

“ _ Nyehhh!! _ ” Himiko yelped, hopping onto one foot and clutching the other, as if it’d been burnt after that single step. And then she’d lost balance and tumbled to the ground, still holding onto her (not) burnt foot, with a disgruntled noise.

Something so utterly ungraceful caught the eye of more than one person, which earned some laughter; Some sympathetic and just surprised, and some much-less-than-sympathetic. Himiko pouted and hid her face with her sunhat as Tenko valiantly defended the mage from Kokichi and Hiyoko’s mocking remarks and Kaede went over to help Himiko back to her feet.

“I guess I should get some sandals after all…” the mage remarked in defeat.


End file.
